Joe Paterno and Penn State's most influential administrators did not concern themselves with the victims of abuse at the hands of now convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, Louis Freeh's eight-month investigation concluded. The report was released Thursday.

Despite there being "more red flags here than you can count," the most powerful men at Penn State failed to bring down a sexual predator who used the football facilities to commit heinous crimes against young boys.

"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh said.

"The evidence clearly shows in our view an active agreement of concealment," Freeh said Thursday morning.

It remains to be seen whether the NCAA will take action against Penn State's football program, or if there will be any further criminal charges. Spanier has not been charged with a crime. Schultz and Curley have both been charged with lying to the Grand Jury and for failing to report the abuse. Paterno died in January of lung cancer. Sandusky was convicted in June on 45 counts of sexual abuse against 10 boys and is awaiting sentencing.

Freeh implied that the football program could come under fire.

"The rapes of these boys occurred in the Lasch Building," he said during a press conference Thursday. "Mr. Paterno's office was in the Lasch Building."

The motivation behind the cover-up: preventing bad publicity.

Concerned about the university's reputation, donors and public backlash, the four men chose to keep the allegations quiet. In 1998, after a mother of a child called police to say that her son said he'd showered with Sandusky and an investigation that produced no charges was launched, none of the men ever spoke to Sandusky about the incident.

"The evidence shows Mr. Paterno was aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action, even though Sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years, and had an office just steps away from Mr. Paterno's.

None of the men alerted the Board of Trustees about the 1998 investigation, either. The 2001 allegations were kept under wraps as well. The investigation confirmed that Curley, Spanier and Schultz decided in 2001 to report Sandusky to the child welfare office and to the charity he founded, The Second Mile. But, Curley later told his superiors that after discussing the issue with Paterno, he thought it would be best to just talk to Sandusky.

Freeh described their actions as a "callous and shocking disregard for child victims."

As for the Board of Trustees, Freeh said it failed to create an environment "which held the University's most senior leaders accountable to it."

More than 400 people were interviewed by Freeh’s team, which has produced a report of more than 200 pages. Included among those interviewed were janitors who said they were afraid they'd lose their jobs if they told anyone about a rape one of them had witnessed in 2000. The janitor Freeh's team spoke to said it was the "most horrific thing he'd ever seen, and this is a Korean War Veteran," Freeh said.

"They were afraid to take on the football program. It would be like going against the President of the United States," Freeh said.

At Penn State, Paterno ruled and out of respect, few would take him on. Freeh said this report was not done to tarnish the legacy of Paterno, the all-time winningest major college football coach.

"Mr. Paterno has a terrific legacy, a great legacy and he brought huge value not just to the university but the football program," Freeh said. "But as someone said, he made perhaps the worst mistake of his life. I'm not singling him out. I'm putting him in a category with three other people who you would say are major leaders of Penn State.

"But he (was) also a major leader...He was an integral part of this active decision to conceal. I regret that because of the damage it does to his legacy."

Paterno's family issued a lengthy statement defending Paterno and his actions.

"Joe Paterno wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes and he regretted them. He is still the only leader to step forward and say that with the benefit of hindsight he wished he had done more. To think, however, that he would have protected Jerry Sandusky to avoid bad publicity is simply not realistic. If Joe Paterno had understood what Sandusky was, a fear of bad publicity would not have factored into his actions," the statement read.

It concluded: "It can be argued that Joe Paterno should have gone further. He should have pushed his superiors to see that they were doing their jobs. We accept this criticism. At the same time, Joe Paterno and everyone else knew that Sandusky had been repeatedly investigated by authorities who approved his multiple adoptions and foster children. Joe Paterno mistakenly believed that investigators, law enforcement officials, University leaders and others would properly and fully investigate any issue and proceed as the facts dictated.

This didn’t happen and everyone shares the responsibility."

Paterno's son, Scott Paterno, told the Patriot News: "I know my father did not know Jerry was a pedophile and did not suspect he was a pedophile."

Freeh said Paterno was powerful enough to have stopped Sandusky's unprecedented access as a retired coach "if he wished." Sandusky retired in 1999, but that did not appear to be an action related to the 1998 incident, Freeh said.

Freeh's team made 119 recommendations to Penn State to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. The university has already implemented those, he said. A parent of six boys, Freeh said that he would not dissuade a child from attending Penn State.

The Clery Act, a federal law that requires university to alert the campus body when a sex crime occurs on campus, was never enacted at Penn State. Further, there was no action plan in place in the event that it was ever needed. That, too, has been corrected, Freeh said.

The Paterno family issued a statement this week decrying its lack of participation in the investigation. They also said that Paterno did not know that Sandusky was a pedophile.

Spanier’s lawyers said their client was not a part of any kind of cover-up.

“At no time in the more than 16 years of his presidency at Penn State was Dr. Spanier told of an incident involving Jerry Sandusky that described child abuse, sexual misconduct or criminality of any kind, and he reiterated that during his interview with Louis Freeh and his colleagues,” the statement from lawyers Peter Vaira and Elizabeth Ainslie read.